My fear was that I wasn’t showing all sides of myself, to the point where if I wore a Snapback, which I’ve worn for more years of my life than I’ve worn suits, than suddenly people will be like, “Oh, that’s not him.” I wear T-shirts when I’m out and about sometimes. I don’t want to say never but it’s highly unlikely.
Someone asked me two days ago, “Do you fear losing yourself? Losing yourself in the pressures of the label, the pressures of the industry, in the game?” That could never happen to me. And when you from anonymity to this superhero guy in a three-piece suit, for the sake of your sanity and for the sake of the things that actually made you successful and brought you that notoriety, you need to isolate yourself. I was on the road so much that year, I don’t think it came back to the studio for maybe six months. In 2015, I was completely focused on the promotion of “Classic Man.” It took me away from the studio. Why did you want to work alone like that at the beginning? What happened is, as we were traveling and gearing up for the promotion of the album, I made a second album with Nana Kwabena, and when we listened to the songs, everybody was like, “If you merge those two albums, you’re actually going to have a masterpiece.” So here we are. We did have an original release date, a couple, the last one being in October. The production team included Nate Wonder, Andrew Horowitz, Roman GianArthur the whole Wondaland crew had a hand in making it a special album.
We spent the first six months of 2016 tightening up the sound. I wrote and produced the foundation of all the music that people are hearing now. Nobody was around at all I missed the holiday season with my family to work on the album. Jidenna spoke with Rolling Stone about composing his new album in isolation, playing songs for legendary producers like Pharrell and the ways in which politics affect his music.Ī year ago I hunkered down and spent 30 days alone at the studio. Chasteness, Soda Pop, and Show Tunes: The Lost Story of the Young Americans and the Choircore Movementįlashback: Tina Turner Covers Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson on Debut Solo Album